my domain has been taken over by someone else. URGENT

  • Unknown's avatar
    joestudwell · Member ·

    Dear WordPress (I sent this email to the ‘upgrade’ address and have had no reply).
    Your email below is the ONLY one I received about renewing my domain. I have been travelling and have not paid the renewal.
    I have now been alerted by various subscribers that joestudwell.com has become a visually pornographic page with text in Chinese offering various air ticketing deals (which do not seem to click through to anything meaningful).
    I am a writer who is frequently sought through his blog by loyal readers who are very important to me and my livelihood.
    Can you please tell me what is happening? I am feeling rather distressed.

    On 1 February 2012 21:32, WordPress.com Upgrades <(email visible only to moderators and staff)> wrote:

    Dear User,

    We just noticed that you may not have received our notifications about your domain name ‘joestudwell.com’ expiring on January 6th, 2012.

    This was due to a technical glitch on our end that has now been fixed, please accept our apologies about that.

    You can still renew your domain name from this page:

    http://joestudwell.com/wp-admin/paid-upgrades.php?page=domains

    Should you experience any trouble during the renewal process, please get in touch with us by replying to this email.

    Please let us know if you have any questions,

    The WordPress.com team
    …
    Finally, the following is what one subscriber to my now missing blog describes as having happened:

    The first non-blog page I saw on the domain was essentially a “for sale” sign. I do remember “Go Daddy” being mentioned, but that may just have been part
    of a generic parked domain add.
    I assume this means on expiry the name was picked up by a domain auction company, perhaps associated with the original registrar.
    By the time of my second email, that had been replaced with what looks like a minimal add for adult stuff and I guess the flight deals.
    (It actually looks like just a blank page on my main computer, which is lacking in some features.)
    From the “whois” information, now the contact is:

    Administrative Contact:
    Private, Registration (email visible only to moderators and staff)
    Domains By Proxy, LLC
    DomainsByProxy.com
    15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
    Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
    United States
    (480) 624-2599 Fax — (480) 624-2598

    I would assume they are a proxy for the actual asian-ish owner.

    The current registrar seems to be WILD WEST DOMAINS, LLC (http://www.wildwestdomains.com).

    That’s as much as I can guess.

    Best wishes, and I hope it gets sorted soon
    …
    Please, please get in touch with me soon. http://www.joestudwell.com is my reputation, my livelihood, my personal identity.
    Joe Studwell
    Blog url: http://joestudwell.wordpress.com

  • bryanvillarin · Staff ·

    I’m sorry for the delay. We’ve received your email, and we’ll reply to it—via email—shortly.

    Thanks for your patience.

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